American actress Caylee Cowan attends the OK! Magazine NYFW Party at PhD, Dream Downtown Hotel Rooftop on September 10, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/OK! Magazine/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A man paddleboards during a sunrise on the beach in Miami Beach, Florida, on March 23, 2021. (Photo by Chandan Khanna/AFP Photo)

The “Assignments” exhibition is an annual chance to see the top images by UK photojournalists, as chosen by the British Press Photographers’ Association. Here: Wales’s Cory McKenna dominates Micol DiSegni during their fight at Cage Warriors 97 in Cardiff, 29 September 2018. (Photo by Chris Fairweather/Huw Evans Agency)

Wakodahatchee wetlands, Delray Beach, Florida, US. Equipped with sinewy necks and spear-like bills, great blue herons can lunge with fearsome speed to strike their aquatic prey. Adults will also employ rapid stabbing motions as one aspect of their complex courtship displays; they’re seemingly dangerous moves, but fitting to the intensity of mating season. (Photo by Melissa Rowell/Audubon Photography Awards)

Portrait category, bronze award winner. Purple-crested Turaco Gallirex porphyreolophus. Lower Mpushini, near Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. (Photo by Richard Flack/Bird Photographer of the Year 2022)

Mulan Jamilah, a 6-year-old Bengal tiger and Abdullah Sholeh, 33, play in the garden beside their home on January 20, 2014 in Malang, Indonesia. Abdullah Sholeh of Malang, Indonesia is an Islamic student who has become best friend and a full-time nanny to the tiger.

The National Geographic Photo Ark is a travelling exhibition of photographer Joel Sartore’s quest to create a photo archive of biodiversity around the world. So far, Sartore has captured studio portraits of more than 6,000 species – a number that he hopes to double. On 1 July, the ark will open at Melbourne zoo – the first time it has been exhibited in the southern hemisphere. More than 50 portraits will be on display, including many of Australian endangered animals being protected by programs at the zoo itself. These captions have been edited from text supplied by Melbourne zoo. Here: Barking owl. (Photo by Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark/The Guardian)